Polyvalent vaccine

ABSTRACT

The disclosure generally relates to an immunogenic composition (e.g., a vaccine) and, in particular, to a polyvalent immunogenic composition, such as a polyvalent HIV vaccine, and to methods of using same.

This application claims priority from U.S. Provisional Application No.60/710,154, filed Aug. 23, 2005, and U.S. Provisional Application No.60/739,413, filed Nov. 25, 2005, the entire contents of which areincorporated herein by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates, in general, to an immunogenic composition(e.g., a vaccine) and, in particular, to a polyvalent immunogeniccomposition, such as a polyvalent HIV vaccine, and to methods of usingsame. The invention further relates to methods that use a geneticalgorithm to create sets of polyvalent antigens suitable for use, forexample, in vaccination strategies.

BACKGROUND

Designing an effective HIV vaccine is a many-faceted challenge. Thevaccine preferably elicits an immune response capable of eitherpreventing infection or, minimally, controlling viral replication ifinfection occurs, despite the failure of immune responses to naturalinfection to eliminate the virus (Nabel, Vaccine 20:1945-1947 (2002)) orto protect from superinfection (Altfeld et al, Nature 420:434-439(2002)). Potent vaccines are needed, with optimized vectors,immunization protocols, and adjuvants (Nabel, Vaccine 20:1945-1947(2002)), combined with antigens that can stimulate cross-reactiveresponses against the diverse spectrum of circulating viruses (Gaschenet al, Science 296:2354-2360 (2002), Korber et al, Br. Med. Bull.58:19-42 (2001)). The problems that influenza vaccinologists haveconfronted for decades highlight the challenge posed by HIV-1: humaninfluenza strains undergoing antigenic drift diverge from one another byaround 1-2% per year, yet vaccine antigens often fail to elicitcross-reactive B-cell responses from one year to the next, requiringthat contemporary strains be continuously monitored and vaccines beupdated every few years (Korber et al, Br. Med. Bull. 58:19-42 (2001)).In contrast, co-circulating individual HIV-1 strains can differ from oneanother by 20% or more in relatively conserved proteins, and up to 35%in the Envelope protein (Gaschen et al, Science 296:2354-2360 (2002),Korber et al, Br. Med. Bull. 58:19-42 (2001)).

Different degrees of viral diversity in regional HIV-1 epidemics providea potentially useful hierarchy for vaccine design strategies. Somegeographic regions recapitulate global diversity, with a majority ofknown HIV-1 subtypes, or clades, co-circulating (e.g., the DerrocraticRepublic of the Congo (Mokili & Korber, J. Neurovirol 11(Suppl. 1):66-75(2005)); others are dominated by two subtypes and their recombinants(e.g., Uganda (Barugahare et al, J. Virol. 79:4132-4139 (2005)), andothers by a single subtype (e.g., South Africa (Williamson et al, AIDSRes. Hum. Retroviruses 19:133-144 (2003)). Even areas with predominantlysingle-subtype epidemics must address extensive within-clade diversity(Williamson et al, AIDS Res. Hum. Retroviruses 19:133-44 (2003)) but,since international travel can be expected to further blur geographicdistinctions, all nations would benefit from a global vaccine.

Presented herein is the design of polyvalent vaccine antigen setsfocusing on T lymphocyte responses, optimized for either the common Band C subtypes, or all HIV-1 variants in global circulation [the HIV-1Main (M) group]. Cytotoxic T-lymphocytes (CTL) directly kill infected,virus-producing host cells, recognizing them via viral protein fragments(epitopes) presented on infected cell surfaces by human leukocyteantigen (HLA) molecules. Helper T-cell responses control varied aspectsof the immune response through the release of cytokines. Both are likelyto be crucial for an HIV-1 vaccine: CTL responses have been implicatedin slowing disease progression (Oxenius et al, J. Infect. Dis.189:1199-208 (2004)); vaccine-elicited cellular immune responses innonhuman primates help control pathogenic SW or SHIV, reducing thelikelihood of disease after challenge (Barouch et al, Science 290:486-92(2000)); and experimental depletion of CD8+ T-cells results in increasedviremia in SW infected rhesus macaques Schmitz et al, Science 283:857-60(1999)). Furthermore, CTL escape mutations are associated with diseaseprogression (Barouch et al, J. Virol. 77:7367-75 (2003)), thusvaccine-stimulated memory responses that block potential escape routesmay be valuable.

The highly variable Env protein is the primary target for neutralizingantibodies against HIV; since immune protection will likely require bothB-cell and T-cell responses (Moore and Burton, Nat. Med. 10:769-71(2004)), Env vaccine antigens will also need to be optimized separatelyto elicit antibody responses. T-cell-directed vaccine components, incontrast, can target the more conserved proteins, but even the mostconserved HIV-1 proteins are diverse enough that variation is an issue.Artificial central-sequence vaccine approaches (e.g., consensussequences, in which every amino acid is found in a plurality ofsequences, or maximum likelihood reconstructions of ancestral sequences(Gaschen et al, Science 296:2354-60 (2002), Gao et al, J. Virol.79:1154-63 (2005), Doria-Rose et al, J. Virol. 79:11214-24 (2005),Weaver et al, J. Virol., in press)) are promising; nevertheless, evencentralized strains provide limited coverage of HIV-1 variants, andconsensus-based reagents fail to detect many autologous T-cell responses(Altfeld et al, J. Virol. 77:7330-40 (2003)).

Single amino acid changes can allow an epitope to escape T-cellsurveillance; since many T-cell epitopes differ between HIV-1 strains atone or more positions, potential responses to any single vaccine antigenare limited. Whether a particular mutation results in escape dependsupon the specific epitope/T-cell combination, although some changesbroadly affect between-subtype cross-reactivity (Norris et al, AIDS Res.Hum. Retroviruses 20:315-25 (2004)). Including multiple variants in apolyvalent vaccine could enable responses to a broader range ofcirculating variants, and could also prime the immune system againstcommon escape mutants (Jones et al, J. Exp. Med. 200:1243-56 (2004)).Escape from one T-cell receptor may create a variant that is susceptibleto another (Allen et al, J. Virol. 79:12952-60 (2005), Feeney et al, J.Immunol. 174:7524-30 (2005)), so stimulating polyclonal responses toepitope variants may be beneficial (Killian et al, Aids 19:887-96(2005)). Escape mutations that inhibit processing (Milicic et al, J.Immunol. 175:4618-26 (2005)) or HLA binding (Ammaranond et al, AIDS Res.Hum. Retroviruses 21:395-7 (2005)) cannot be directly countered by aT-cell with a different specificity, but responses to overlappingepitopes may block even some of these escape routes.

The present invention relates to a polyvalent vaccine comprising several“mosaic” proteins (or genes encoding these proteins). The candidatevaccine antigens can be cocktails of k composite proteins (k being thenumber of sequence variants in the cocktail), optimized to include themaximum number of potential T-cell epitopes in an input set of viralproteins. The mosaics are generated from natural sequences: theyresemble natural proteins and include the most common forms of potentialepitopes. Since CD8+ epitopes are contiguous and typically nineamino-acids long, sets of mosaics can be scored by “coverage” ofnonamers (9-mers) in the natural sequences (fragments of similar lengthsare also well represented). 9-Mers not found at least three times can beexcluded. This strategy provides the level of diversity coverageachieved by a massively polyvalent multiple-peptide vaccine but withimportant advantages: it allows vaccine delivery as intact proteins orgenes, excludes low-frequency or unnatural epitopes that are notrelevant to circulating strains, and its intact protein antigens aremore likely to be processed as in a natural infection.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In general, the present invention relates to an immunogenic composition.More specifically, the invention relates to a polyvalent immunogeniccomposition (e.g., an HIV vaccine), and to methods of using same. Theinvention further relates to methods that involve the use of a geneticalgorithm to design sets of polyvalent antigens suitable for use asvaccines.

Objects and advantages of the present invention will be clear from thedescription that follows.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIGS. 1A-1F. The upper bound of potential epitope coverage of the HIV-1M group. The upper bound for population coverage of 9-mers forincreasing numbers of variants is shown, for k=1-8 variants. A slidingwindow of length nine was applied across aligned sequences, moving downby one position. Different colors denote results for different numbersof sequences. At each window, the coverage given by the k most common9-mers is plotted for Gag (FIGS. 1A and 1B), Nef (FIGS. 1C and 1D) andEnv gp120 (FIGS. 1E and 1F). Gaps inserted to maintain the alignment aretreated as characters. The diminishing returns of adding more variantsare evident, since, as k increases, increasingly rare forms are added.In FIGS. 1A, 1C and 1E, the scores for each consecutive 9-mer areplotted in their natural order to show how diversity varies in differentprotein regions; both p24 in the center of Gag and the central region ofNef are particularly highly conserved. In FIGS. 1B, ID and IF, thescores for each 9-mer are reordered by coverage (a strategy also used inFIG. 4), to provide a sense of the overall population coverage of agiven protein. Coverage of gp120, even with 8 variant 9-mers, isparticularly poor (FIGS. 1E and 1F).

FIGS. 2A-2C. Mosaic initialization, scoring, and optimization. FIG. 2A)A set of k populations is generated by random 2-point recombination ofnatural sequences (1-6 populations of 50-500 sequences each have beentested). One sequence from each population is chosen (initially atrandom) for the mosaic cocktail, which is subsequently optimized. Thecocktail sequences are scored by computing coverage (defined as the meanfraction of natural-sequence 9-mers included in the cocktail, averagedover all natural sequences in the input data set). Any new sequence thatcovers more epitopes will increase the score of the whole cocktail. FIG.2B) The fitness score of any individual sequence is the coverage of acocktail containing that sequence plus the current representatives fromother populations. FIG. 2C) Optimization: 1) two “parents” are chosen:the higher-scoring of a randomly chosen pair of recombined sequences,and either (with 50% probability) the higher-scoring sequence of asecond random pair, or a randomly chosen natural sequence. 2) Two-pointrecombination between the two parents is used to generate a “child”sequence. If the child contains unnatural or rare 9-mers, it isimmediately rejected, otherwise it is scored (Gaschen et al, Science296:2354-2360 (2002)). If the score is higher than that of any of fourrandomly-selected population members, the child is inserted in thepopulation in place of the weakest of the four, thus evolving animproved population; 4) if its score is a new high score, the new childreplaces the current cocktail member from its population. Ten cycles ofchild generation are repeated for each population in turn, and theprocess iterates until improvement stalls.

FIG. 3. Mosaic strain coverage for all HIV proteins. The level of 9-mercoverage achieved by sets of four mosaic proteins for each HIV proteinis shown, with mosaics optimized using either the M group or the Csubtype. The fraction of C subtype sequence 9-mers covered by mosaicsoptimized on the C subtype (within-clade optimization) is shown in gray.Coverage of 9-mers found in non-C subtype M-group sequences bysubtype-C-optimized mosaics (between-clade coverage) is shown in white.Coverage of subtype C sequences by M-group optimized mosaics is shown inblack. B clade comparisons gave comparable results (data not shown).

FIGS. 4A-4F. Coverage of M group sequences by different vaccinecandidates, nine-mer by nine-mer. Each plot presents site-by-sitecoverage (i.e., for each nine-mer) of an M-group natural-sequencealignment by a single tri-valent vaccine candidate. Bars along thex-axis represent the proportion of sequences matched by the vaccinecandidate for a given alignment position: 9/9 matches (in red), 8/9(yellow), 7/9 (blue). Aligned 9-mers are sorted along the x-axis byexact-match coverage value. 656 positions include both the complete Gagand the central region of Nef. For each alignment position, the maximumpossible matching value (i.e. the proportion of aligned sequenceswithout gaps in that nine-mer) is shown in gray. FIG. 4A) Non-optimalnatural sequences selected from among strains being used in vaccinestudies (Kong et al, J. Virol. 77:12764-72 (2003)) including anindividual clade A, B, and C viral sequences (Gag: GenBank accessionnumbers AF004885, K03455, and U52953; Nef core: AF069670, K02083, andU52953). FIG. 4B) Optimum set of natural sequences [isolates US2(subtype B, USA), 70177 (subtype C, India), and 99TH.R2399 (subtypeCRF15_(—)01B, Thailand); accession numbers AY173953, AF533131,and_AF530576] selected by choosing the single sequence with maximumcoverage, followed by the sequence that had the best coverage whencombined with the first (i.e. the best complement), and so on, selectedfor M group coverage FIG. 4C) Consensus sequence cocktail (M group, B-and C-subtypes). FIG. 4D) 3 mosaic sequences, FIG. 4E) 4 mosaicsequences, FIG. 4F) 6 mosaic sequences. FIGS. 4D-4F were all optimizedfor M group coverage.

FIGS. 5A and 5B. Overall coverage of vaccine candidates: coverage of9-mers in C clade sequences using different input data sets for mosaicoptimization, allowing different numbers of antigens, and comparing todifferent candidate vaccines. Exact (blue), 8/9 (one-off; red), and 7/9(two-off; yellow) coverage was computed for mono- and polyvalent vaccinecandidates for Gag (FIG. 5A) and Nef (core) (FIG. 5B) for four testsituations: within-clade (C-clade-optimized candidates scored forC-clade coverage), between-clade (B-clade-optimized candidates scoredfor C-clade coverage), global-against-single-subtype (M-group-optimizedcandidates scored for C-clade coverage), global-against-global(M-group-optimized candidates scored for global coverage). Within eachset of results, vaccine candidates are grouped by number of sequences inthe cocktail (1-6); mosaic sequences are plotted with darker colors.“Non-opt” refers to one set of sequences moving into vaccine trials(Kong et al, J. Virol. 77:12764-72 (2003)); “mosaic” denotes sequencesgenerated by the genetic algorithm; “opt. natural” denotes intactnatural sequences selected for maximum 9-mer coverage; “MBC consensus”denotes a cocktail of 3 consensus sequences, for M-group, B-subtype, andC-subtype. For ease of comparison, a dashed line marks the coverage of a4-sequence set of M-group mosaics (73.7-75.6%). Over 150 combinations ofmosaic-number, virus subset, protein region, and optimization and testsets were tested. The C clade/B clade/M group comparisons illustrated inthis figure are generally representative of within-clade, between-clade,and M group coverage. In particular, levels of mosaic coverage for B andC clade were very similar, despite there being many more C cladesequences in the Gag collection, and many more B clade sequences in theNef collection (see FIG. 6 for a full B and C clade comparison). Therewere relatively few A and G clade sequences in the alignments (24 Gag,75 Nef), and while 9-mer coverage by M-group optimized mosaics was notas high as for subtypes for B and C clades (4-mosaic coverage for A andG subtypes was 63% for Gag, 74% for Nef), it was much better than anon-optimal cocktail (52% Gag, 52% for Nef).

FIGS. 6A and 6B. Overall coverage of vaccine candidates: coverage of9-mers in B-clade, C-clade, and M-group sequences using different inputdata sets for mosaic optimization, allowing different numbers ofantigens, and comparing to different candidate vaccines. Exact (blue),8/9 (one-off; red), and 7/9 (two-off; yellow) coverage was computed formono- and polyvalent vaccine candidates for Gag (FIG. 6A) and Nef (core)(FIG. 6B) for seven test situations: within-clade (B- orC-clade-optimized candidates scored against the same clade),between-clade (B- or C-clade-optimized candidates scored against theother clade), global vaccine against single subtype (M-group-optimizedcandidates scored against B- or C-clade), global vaccine against globalviruses (M-group-optimized candidates scored against all M-groupsequences). Within each set of results, vaccine candidates are groupedby number of sequences in the cocktail (1-6); mosaic sequences areplotted with darker colors. “Non-opt” refers to a particular set ofnatural sequences previously proposed for a vaccine (Kong, W. P. et al.J Virol 77, 12764-72 (2003)); “mosaic” denotes sequences generated bythe genetic algorithm; “opt. natural” denotes intact natural sequencesselected for maximum 9-mer coverage; “MBC consensus” denotes a cocktailof 3 consensus sequences, for M-group, B-subtype, and C-subtype. Adashed line is shown at the level of exact-match M-group coverage for a4-valent mosaic set optimized on the M-group.

FIGS. 7A and 7B. The distribution of 9-mers by frequency of occurrencein natural, consensus, and mosaic sequences. Occurrence counts (y-axis)for different 9-mer frequencies (x-axis) for vaccine cocktails producedby several methods. FIG. 7A: frequencies from 0-60% (for 9-merfrequencies >60%, the distributions are equivalent for all methods).FIG. 7B: Details of low-frequency 9-mers. Natural sequences have largenumbers of rare or unique-to-isolate 9-mers (bottom right, FIGS. 7A and7B); these are unlikely to induce useful vaccine responses. Selectingoptimal natural sequences does select for more common 9-mers, but rareand unique 9-mers are still included (top right, FIGS. 7A and 7B).Consensus cocktails, in contrast, under-represent uncommon 9-mers,especially below 20% frequency (bottom left, FIGS. 7A and 7B). Formosaic sequences, the number of lower-frequency 9-mers monotonicallyincreases with the number of sequences (top left, each panel), butunique-to-isolate 9-mers are completely excluded (top left of rightpanel: * marks the absence of 9-mers with frequencies <0.005).

FIGS. 8A-8D. HLA binding potential of vaccine candidates. FIGS. 8A and8B) HLA binding motif counts. FIGS. 8C and 8D) number of unfavorableamino acids. In all graphs: natural sequences are marked with blackcircles (); consensus sequences with blue triangles (▴); inferredancestral sequences with green squares (

); and mosaic sequences with red diamonds (♦). Left panel (FIGS. 8A and8C) shows HLA-binding-motif counts (FIG. 8A) and counts of unfavorableamino acids (FIG. 8C) calculated for individual sequences; Right panel(FIGS. 8B and 8D) shows HLA binding motifs counts (FIG. 8B) and countsof unfavorable amino acids (FIG. 8D) calculated for sequence cocktails.The top portion of each graph (box-and-whiskers graph) shows thedistribution of respective counts (motif counts or counts of unfavorableamino acids) based either on alignment of M group sequences (forindividual sequences, FIGS. 8A and 8C) or on 100 randomly composedcocktails of three sequences, one from each A, B and C subtypes (forsequence cocktails, FIGS. 8B and 8D). The alignment was downloaded fromthe Los Alamos HIV database. The box extends from the 25 percentile tothe 75 percentile, with the line at the median. The whiskers extendingoutside the box show the highest and lowest values. Amino acids that arevery rarely found as C-terminal anchor residues are G, S, T, P, N, Q, D,E, and H, and tend to be small, polar, or negatively charged (Yusim etal, J. Virol. 76:8757-8768 (2002)). Results are shown for Gag, but thesame qualitative results hold for Nef core and complete Nef. The sameprocedure was done for supertype motifs with results qualitativelysimilar to the results for HLA binding motifs (data not shown).

FIG. 9. Mosaic protein sets limited to 4 sequences (k=4), spanning Gagand the central region of Nef, optimized for subtype B, subtype C, andthe M group.

FIG. 10. Mosaic sets for Env and Pol.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention results from the realization that a polyvalent setof antigens comprising synthetic viral proteins, the sequences of whichprovide maximum coverage of non-rare short stretches of circulatingviral sequences, constitutes a good vaccine candidate. The inventionprovides a “genetic algorithm” strategy to create such sets ofpolyvalent antigens as mosaic blends of fragments of an arbitrary set ofnatural protein sequences provided as inputs. In the context of HIV, theproteins Gag and the inner core (but not the whole) of Nef are idealcandidates for such antigens. The invention further provides optimizedsets for these proteins.

The genetic algorithm strategy of the invention uses unaligned proteinsequences from the general population as an input data set, and thus hasthe virtue of being “alignment independent”. It creates artificialmosaic proteins that resemble proteins found in nature—the success ofthe consensus antigens in small animals models suggest this works well.9 Mers are the focus of the studies described herein, however, differentlength peptides can be selected depending on the intended target. Inaccordance with the present approach, 9 mers (for example) that do notexist in nature or that are very rare can be excluded—this is animprovement relative to consensus sequences since the latter can containsome 9 mers (for example) that have not been found in nature, andrelative to natural strains that almost invariably contain some 9 mers(for example) that are unique to that strain. The definition of fitnessused for the genetic algorithm is that the most “fit” polyvalentcocktail is the combination of mosaic strains that gives the bestcoverage (highest fraction of perfect matches) of all of the 9 mers inthe population and is subject to the constraint that no 9 mer is absentor rare in the population.

The mosaics protein sets of the invention can be optimized with respectto different input data sets—this allows use of current data to assessvirtues of a subtype or region specific vaccines from a T cellperspective. By way of example, options that have been compared include:

-   -   1) Optimal polyvalent mosaic sets based on M group, B clade and        C clade. The question presented was how much better is        intra-clade coverage than inter-clade or global.    -   2) Different numbers of antigens: 1, 3, 4, 6    -   3) Natural strains currently in use for vaccine protocols just        to exemplify “typical” strains (Merck, VRC)    -   4) Natural strains selected to give the best coverage of 9-mers        in a population    -   5) Sets of consensus: A+B+C.    -   6) Optimized cocktails that include one “given” strain in a        polyvalent antigen, one ancestral+3 mosaic strains, one        consensus+3 mosaic strains.    -   7) Coverage of 9 mers that were perfectly matched was compared        with those that match 8/9, 7/9, and 6/9 or less.        This is a computationally difficult problem, as the best set to        cover one 9-mer may not be the best set to cover overlapping        9-mers.

It will be appreciated from a reading of this disclosure that theapproach described herein can be used to design peptide reagents to testHIV immune responses, and be applied to other variable pathogens aswell. For example, the present approach can be adapted to the highlyvariable virus Hepatitis C.

The proteins/polypeptides/peptides (“immunogens”) of the invention canbe formulated into compositions with a pharmaceutically acceptablecarrier and/or adjuvant using techniques well known in the art. Suitableroutes of administration include systemic (e.g. intramuscular orsubcutaneous), oral, intravaginal, intrarectal and intranasal.

The immunogens of the invention can be chemically synthesized andpurified using methods which are well known to the ordinarily skilledartisan. The immunogens can also be synthesized by well-knownrecombinant DNA techniques.

Nucleic acids encoding the immunogens of the invention can be used ascomponents of, for example, a DNA vaccine wherein the encoding sequenceis administered as naked DNA or, for example, a minigene encoding theimmunogen can be present in a viral vector. The encoding sequences canbe expressed, for example, in mycobacterium, in a recombinant chimericadenovirus, or in a recombinant attenuated vesicular stomatitis virus.The encoding sequence can also be present, for example, in a replicatingor non-replicating adenoviral vector, an adeno-associated virus vector,an attenuated mycobacterium tuberculosis vector, a Bacillus CalmetteGuerin (BCO) vector, a vaccinia or Modified Vaccinia Ankara (MVA)vector, another pox virus vector, recombinant polio and other entericvirus vector, Salmonella species bacterial vector, Shigella speciesbacterial vector, Venezuelean Equine Encephalitis Virus (VEE) vector, aSemliki Forest Virus vector, or a Tobacco Mosaic Virus vector. Theencoding sequence, can also be expressed as a DNA plasmid with, forexample, an active promoter such as a CMV promoter. Other live vectorscan also be used to express the sequences of the invention. Expressionof the immunogen of the invention can be induced in a patient's owncells, by introduction into those cells of nucleic acids that encode theimmunogen, preferably using codons and promoters that optimizeexpression in human cells. Examples of methods of making and using DNAvaccines are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,580,859, 5,589,466, and5,703,055.

It will be appreciated that adjuvants can be included in thecompositions of the invention (or otherwise administered to enhance theimmunogenic effect). Examples of suitable adjuvants include TRL-9agonists, TRL-4 agonists, and TRL-7, 8 and 9 agonist combinations (aswell as alum). Adjuvants can take the form of oil and water emulsions.Squalene adjuvants can also be used.

The composition of the invention comprises an immunologically effectiveamount of the immunogen of this invention, or nucleic acid sequenceencoding same, in a pharmaceutically acceptable delivery system. Thecompositions can be used for prevention and/or treatment of virusinfection (e.g. HIV infection). As indicated above, the compositions ofthe invention can be formulated using adjuvants, emulsifiers,pharmaceutically-acceptable carriers or other ingredients routinelyprovided in vaccine compositions. Optimum formulations can be readilydesigned by one of ordinary skill in the art and can includeformulations for immediate release and/or for sustained release, and forinduction of systemic immunity and/or induction of localized mucosalimmunity (e.g, the formulation can be designed for intranasal,intravaginal or intrarectal administration). As noted above, the presentcompositions can be administered by any convenient route includingsubcutaneous, intranasal, oral, intramuscular, or other parenteral orenteral route. The immunogens can be administered as a single dose ormultiple doses. Optimum immunization schedules can be readily determinedby the ordinarily skilled artisan and can vary with the patient, thecomposition and the effect sought.

The invention contemplates the direct use of both the immunogen of theinvention and/or nucleic acids encoding same and/or the immunogenexpressed as indicated above. For example, a minigene encoding theimmunogen can be used as a prime and/or boost.

The invention includes any and all amino acid sequences disclosedherein, as well as nucleic acid sequences encoding same (and nucleicacids complementary to such encoding sequences).

Specifically disclosed herein are vaccine antigen sets optimized forsingle B or C subtypes, targeting regional epidemics, as well as for allHIV-1 variants in global circulation [the HIV-1 Main (M) group]. In thestudy described in the Example that follows, the focus is on designingpolyvalent vaccines specifically for T-cell responses. HIV-1 specificT-cells are likely to be crucial to an HIV-1-specific vaccine response:CTL responses are correlated with slow disease progression in humans(Oxenius et al, J. Infect. Dis. 189:1199-1208 (2004)), and theimportance of CTL responses in nonhuman primate vaccination models iswell-established. Vaccine elicited cellular immune responses helpcontrol pathogenic SIV or SHIV, and reduce the likelihood of diseaseafter challenge with pathogenic virus (Barouch et al, Science290:486-492 (2000)). Temporary depletion of CD8+ T cells results inincreased viremia in SIV-infected rhesus macaques (Schmitz et al,Science 283:857-860 (1999)). Furthermore, the evolution of escapemutations has been associated with disease progression, indicating thatCTL responses help constrain viral replication in vivo (Barouch et al,J. Virol. 77:7367-7375 (2003)), and so vaccine-stimulated memoryresponses that could block potential escape routes may be of value.While the highly variable Envelope (Env) is the primary target forneutralizing antibodies against HIV, and vaccine antigens will also needto be tailored to elicit these antibody responses (Moore & Burton, Nat.Med. 10:769-771 (2004)), T-cell vaccine components can target moreconserved proteins to trigger responses that are more likely tocross-react. But even the most conserved HIV-1 proteins are diverseenough that variation will be an issue. Artificial central-sequencevaccine approaches, consensus and ancestral sequences (Gaschen et al,Science 296:2354-2360 (2002), Gao et al, J. Virol. 79:1154-1163 (2005),Doria-Rose et al, J. Virol. 79:11214-11224 (2005)), which essentially“split the differences” between strains, show promise, stimulatingresponses with enhanced cross-reactivity compared to natural strainvaccines (Gao et al, J. Virol. 79:1154-1163 (2005)) (Liao et al. andWeaver et al., submitted.) Nevertheless, even central strains cover thespectrum of HIV diversity to a very limited extent, and consensus-basedpeptide reagents fail to detect many autologous CD8+ T-cell responses(Altfeld et al, J. Virol. 77:7330-7340 (2003)).

A single amino acid substitution can mediate T-cell escape, and as oneor more amino acids in many T-cell epitopes differ between HIV-1strains, the potential effectiveness of responses to any one vaccineantigen is limited. Whether a particular mutation will diminish T-cellcross-reactivity is epitope- and T-cell-specific, although some changescan broadly affect between-clade cross-reactivity (Norris et al, AIDSRes. Hum. Retroviruses 20:315-325 (2004)). Including more variants in apolyvalent vaccine could enable responses to a broader range ofcirculating variants. It could also prime the immune system againstcommon escape variants (Jones et al, J. Exp. Med. 200:1243-1256 (2004));escape from one T-cell receptor might create a variant that issusceptible to another (Lee et al, J. Exp. Med. 200:1455-1466 (2004)),thus stimulating polyclonal responses to epitope variants may bebeneficial (Killian et al, AIDS 19:887-896 (2005)). Immune escapeinvolving avenues that inhibit processing (Milicic et al, J. Immunol.175:4618-4626 (2005)) or HLA binding (Ammaranond et al, AIDS Res. Hum.Retroviruses 21:395-397 (2005)) prevent epitope presentation, and insuch cases the escape variant could not be countered by a T-cell with adifferent specificity. However, it is possible the presence of T-cellsthat recognize overlapping epitopes may in some cases block these evenescape routes.

Certain aspects of the invention can be described in greater detail inthe non-limiting Example that follows.

Example Experimental Details

HIV-1 Sequence Data.

The reference alignments from the 2005 HIV sequence database(http://hiv.lanl.gov), which contain one sequence per person, were used,supplemented by additional recently available C subtype Gag and Nefsequences from Durban, South Africa (GenBank accession numbersAY856956-AY857186) (Kiepiela et al, Nature 432:769-75 (2004)). This setcontained 551 Gag and 1,131 Nef M group sequences from throughout theglobe; recombinant sequences were included as well as pure subtypesequences for exploring M group diversity. The subsets of thesealignments that contained 18 A, 102 B, 228 C, and 6 G subtype (Gag), and62 A, 454 B, 284 C, and 13 G subtype sequences (Nef) sequences were usedfor within- and between-single-clade optimizations and comparisons.

The Genetic Algorithm.

GAs are computational analogues of biological processes (evolution,populations, selection, recombination) used to find solutions toproblems that are difficult to solve analytically (Holland, Adaptationin Natural and Artificial Systems: An Introductory Analysis withApplications to Biology, Control, and Artificial Intelligence, (M.I.T.Press, Cambridge, Mass. (1992))). Solutions for a given input are“evolved” though a process of random modification and selectionaccording to a “fitness” (optimality) criterion. GAs come in manyflavors; a “steady-state co-evolutionary multi-population” GA wasimplemented. “Steady-state” refers to generating one new candidatesolution at a time, rather than a whole new population at once; and“co-evolutionary” refers to simultaneously evolving several distinctpopulations that work together to form a complete solution. The input isan unaligned set of natural sequences; a candidate solution is a set ofk pseudo-natural “mosaic” sequences, each of which is formed byconcatenating sections of natural sequences. The fitness criterion ispopulation coverage, defined as the proportion of all 9-amino-acidsequence fragments (potential epitopes) in the input sequences that arefound in the cocktail.

To initialize the GA (FIG. 2), k populations of n initial candidatesequences are generated by 2-point recombination between randomlyselected natural sequences. Because the input natural sequences are notaligned, “homologous” crossover is used: crossover points in eachsequence are selected by searching for short matching strings in bothsequences; strings of c−1=8, were used where a typical epitope length isc=9. This ensures that the recombined sequences resemble naturalproteins: the boundaries between sections of sequence derived fromdifferent strains are seamless, the local sequences spanning theboundaries are always found in nature, and the mosaics are preventedfrom acquiring large insertions/deletions or unnatural combinations ofamino acids. Mosaic sequence lengths fall within the distribution ofnatural sequence lengths as a consequence of mosaic construction:recombination is only allowed at identical regions, reinforced by anexplicit software prohibition against excessive lengths to preventreduplication of repeat regions. (Such “in frame” insertion ofreduplicated epitopes could provide another way of increasing coveragewithout generating unnatural 9-mers, but their inclusion would create“unnatural” proteins.) Initially, the cocktail contains one randomlychosen “winner” from each population. The fitness score for anyindividual sequence in a population is the coverage value for thecocktail consisting of that sequence plus the current winners from theother populations. The individual fitness of any sequence in apopulation therefore depends dynamically upon the best sequences foundin the other populations.

Optimization proceeds one population at a time. For each iteration, two“parent” sequences are chosen. The first parent is chosen using“2-tournament” selection: two sequences are picked at random from thecurrent population, scored, and the better one is chosen. This selectsparents with a probability inversely proportional to their fitness rankwithin the population, without the need to actually compute the fitnessof all individuals. The second parent is chosen in the same way (50% ofthe time), or is selected at random from the set of natural sequences.2-point homologous crossover between the parents is then used togenerate a “child” sequence. Any child containing a 9-mer that was veryrare in the natural population (found less than 3 times) is rejectedimmediately. Otherwise, the new sequence is scored, and its fitness iscompared with the fitnesses of four randomly chosen sequences from thesame population. If any of the four randomly chosen sequences has ascore lower than that of the new sequence, it is replaced in thepopulation by the new sequence. Whenever a sequence is encountered thatyields a better score than the current population “winner”, thatsequence becomes the winner for the current population and so issubsequently used in the cocktail to evaluate sequences in otherpopulations. A few such optimization cycles (typically 10) are appliedto each population in turn, and this process continues cycling throughthe populations until evolution stalls (i.e., no improvement has beenmade for a defined number of generations). At this point, the entireprocedure is restarted using newly generated random startingpopulations, and the restarts are continued until no further improvementis seen. The GA was run on each data set with n=50 or 500; each run wascontinued until no further improvement occurred for 12-24 hours on a 2GHz Pentium processor. Cocktails were generated having k=1, 3, 4, or 6mosaic sequences.

The GA also enables optional inclusion of one or more fixed sequences ofinterest (for example, a consensus) in the cocktail and will evolve theother elements of the cocktail in order to optimally complement thatfixed strain. As these solutions were suboptimal, they are not includedhere. An additional program selects from the input file the k bestnatural strains that in combination provide the best populationcoverage.

Comparison with Other Polyvalent Vaccine Candidates.

Population coverage scores were computed for other potential mono- orpolyvalent vaccines to make direct comparisons with the mosaic-sequencevaccines, tracking identities with population 9-mers, as well assimilarities of 8/9 and 7/9 amino acids. Potential vaccine candidatesbased on natural strains include single strains (for example, a single Cstrain for a vaccine for southern Africa (Williamson et al, AIDS Res.Hum. Retroviruses 19:133-44 (2003))) or combinations of natural strains(for example, one each of subtype A, B, and C (Kong et al, J. Virol.77:12764-72 (2003)). To date, natural-strain vaccine candidates have notbeen systematically selected to maximize potential T-cell epitopecoverage; vaccine candidates were picked from the literature to berepresentative of what could be expected from unselected vaccinecandidates. An upper bound for coverage was also determined using onlyintact natural strains: optimal natural-sequence cocktails weregenerated by selecting the single sequence with the best coverage of thedataset, and then successively adding the most complementary sequencesup to a given k. The comparisons included optimal natural-sequencecocktails of various sizes, as well as consensus sequences, alone or incombination (Gaschen et al, Science 296:2354-60 (2002)), to representthe concept of central, synthetic vaccines. Finally, using thefixed-sequence option in the GA, consensus-plus-mosaic combinations inthe comparisons; these scores were essentially equivalent to all-mosaiccombinations were included for a given k (data not shown). The code usedfor performing these analyses are available at:ftp://ftp-t10/pub/btk/mosaics.

Results

Protein Variation.

In conserved HIV-1 proteins, most positions are essentially invariant,and most variable positions have only two to three amino acids thatoccur at appreciable frequencies, and variable positions are generallywell dispersed between conserved positions. Therefore, within theboundaries of a CD8+ T-cell epitope (8-12 amino acids, typically nine),most of the population diversity can be covered with very few variants.FIG. 1 shows an upper bound for population coverage of 9-mers (stretchesof nine contiguous amino acids) comparing Gag, Nef, and Env forincreasing numbers of variants, sequentially adding variants thatprovide the best coverage. In conserved regions, a high degree ofpopulation coverage is achieved with 2-4 variants. By contrast, invariable regions like Env, limited population coverage is possible evenwith eight, variants. Since each new addition is rarer, the relativebenefits of each addition diminish as the number of variants increases.

Vaccine Design Optimization Strategies.

FIG. 1 shows an idealized level of 9-mer coverage. In reality,high-frequency 9-mers often conflict: because of local co-variation, theoptimal amino acid for one 9-mer may differ from that for an overlapping9-mer. To design mosaic protein sets that optimize population coverage,the relative benefits of each amino acid must be evaluated incombination with nearby variants. For example, Alanine (Ala) andGlutamate (Glu) might each frequently occur in adjacent positions, butif the Ala-Glu combination is never observed in nature, it should beexcluded from the vaccine. Several optimization strategies wereinvestigated: a greedy algorithm, a semi-automated compatible-9merassembly strategy, an alignment-based genetic algorithm (GA), and analignment-independent GA.

The alignment-independent GA generated mosaics with the best populationcoverage. This GA generates a user-specified number of mosaic sequencesfrom a set of unaligned protein sequences, explicitly excluding rare orunnatural epitope-length fragments (potentially introduced atrecombination breakpoints) that could induce non-protectivevaccine-antigen-specific responses. These candidate vaccine sequencesresemble natural proteins, but are assembled from frequency-weightedfragments of database sequences recombined at homologous breakpoints(FIG. 2); they approach maximal coverage of 9-mers for the inputpopulation.

Selecting HIV Protein Regions for an Initial Mosaic Vaccine.

The initial design focused on protein regions meeting specific criteria:i) relatively low variability, ii) high levels of recognition in naturalinfection, iii) a high density of known epitopes and iv) either earlyresponses upon infection or CD8+ T-cell responses associated with goodoutcomes in infected patients. First, an assessment was made of thelevel of 9-mer coverage achieved by mosaics for different HIV proteins(FIG. 3). For each protein, a set of four mosaics was generated usingeither the M group or the B- and C-subtypes alone; coverage was scoredon the C subtype. Several results are notable: i) within-subtypeoptimization provides the best within-subtype coverage, butsubstantially poorer between-subtype coverage—nevertheless,B-subtype-optimized mosaics provide better C-subtype coverage than asingle natural B subtype protein (Kong et al, J. Virol. 77:12764-72(2003)); ii) Pol and Gag have the most potential to elicit broadlycross-reactive responses, whereas Rev, Tat, and Vpu have even fewerconserved 9-mers than the highly variable Env protein, iii)within-subtype coverage of M-group-optimized mosaic sets approachedcoverage of within-subtype optimized sets, particularly for moreconserved proteins.

Gag and the central region of Nef meet the four criteria listed above.Nef is the HIV protein most frequently recognized by T-cells (Frahm etal, J. Virol. 78:2187-200 (2004)) and the target for the earliestresponse in natural infection (Lichterfeld et al, Aids 18:1383-92(2004)). While overall it is variable (FIG. 3), its central region is asconserved as Gag (FIG. 1). It is not yet clear what optimum proteins forinclusion in a vaccine might be, and mosaics could be designed tomaximize the potential coverage of even the most variable proteins (FIG.3), but the prospects for global coverage are better for conservedproteins. Improved vaccine protection in macaques has been demonstratedby adding Rev, Tat, and Nef to a vaccine containing Gag, Pol, and Env(Hel et al, J. Immunol. 176:85-96 (2006)), but this was in the contextof homologous challenge, where variability was not an issue. The extremevariability of regulatory proteins in circulating virus populations maypreclude cross-reactive responses; in terms of conservation, Pol, Gag(particularly p24) and the central region of Nef (HXB2 positions 65-149)are promising potential immunogens (FIGS. 1,3). Pol, however, isinfrequently recognized during natural infection (Frahm et al, J. Virol.78:2187-200 (2004)), so it was not included in the initial immunogendesign. The conserved portion of Nef that were included contains themost highly recognized peptides in HIV-1 (Frahm et al, J. Virol.78:2187-200 (2004)), but as a protein fragment, would not allow Nef'simmune inhibitory functions (e.g. HLA class I down-regulation(Blagoveshchenskaya, Cell 111:853-66 (2002))). Both Gag and Nef aredensely packed with overlapping well-characterized CD8+ and CD4+ T-cellepitopes, presented by many different iHLA molecules(http://www.hiv.lanl.gov//content/immunology/maps/maps.html), andGag-specific CD8+ (Masemola et al, J. Virol. 78:3233-43 (2004)) and CD4+(Oxenius et al, J. Infect. Dis. 189:1199-208 (2004)) T-cell responseshave been associated with low viral set points in infected individuals(Masemola et al, J. Virol. 78:3233-43 (2004)).

To examine the potential impact of geographic variation and input samplesize, a limited test was done using published subtype C sequences. Thesubtype C Gag data were divided into three sets of comparable size—twoSouth African sets (Kiepiela et al, Nature 432:769-75 (2004)), and onenon-South-African subtype C set. Mosaics were optimized independently oneach of the sets, and the resulting mosaics were tested against allthree sets. The coverage of 9-mers was slightly better for identicaltraining and test sets (77-79% 9/9 coverage), but essentially equivalentwhen the training and test sets were the two different South Africandata sets (73-75%), or either of the South African sets and thenon-South African C subtype sequences (74-76%). Thus between- andwithin-country coverage approximated within-clade coverage, and in thiscase no advantage to a country-specific C subtype mosaic design wasfound.

Designing Mosaics for Gag and Nef and Comparing Vaccine Strategies. Toevaluate within- and between-subtype cross-reactivity for variousvaccine design strategies, a calculation was made of the coverage theyprovided for natural M-Group sequences. The fraction of all 9-mers inthe natural sequences that were perfectly matched by 9-mers in thevaccine antigens were computed, as well as those having 8/9 or 7/9matching amino acids, since single (and sometimes double) substitutionswithin epitopes may retain cross-reactivity. FIG. 4 shows M groupcoverage per 9-mer in Gag and the central region of Nef for cocktailsdesigned by various strategies: a) three non-optimal natural strainsfrom the A, B, and C subtypes that have been used as vaccine antigens(Kong et al, J. Virol. 77:12764-72 (2003)); b) three natural strainsthat were computationally selected to give the best M group coverage; c)M group, B subtype, and C subtype consensus sequences; and, d,e,f)three, four and six mosaic proteins. For cocktails of multiple strains,sets of k=3, k=4, and k=6, the mosaics clearly perform the best, andcoverage approaches the upper bound for k strains. They are followed byoptimally selected natural strains, the consensus protein cocktail, andfinally, non-optimal natural strains. Allowing more antigens providesgreater coverage, but gains for each addition are reduced as k increases(FIGS. 1 and 4).

FIG. 5 summarizes total coverage for the different vaccine designstrategies, from single proteins through combinations of mosaicproteins, and compares within-subtype optimization to M groupoptimization. The performance of a single mosaic is comparable to thebest single natural strain or a consensus sequence. Although a singleconsensus sequence out-performs a single best natural strain, theoptimized natural-sequence cocktail does better than the consensuscocktail: the consensus sequences are more similar to each other thanare natural strains, and are therefore somewhat redundant.

Including even just two mosaic variants, however, markedly increasescoverage, and four and six mosaic proteins give progressively bettercoverage than polyvalent cocktails of natural or consensus strains.Within-subtype optimized mosaics perform best—with four mosaic antigens80-85% of the 9-mers are perfectly matched—but between-subtype coverageof these sets falls off dramatically, to 50-60%. In contrast, mosaicproteins optimized using the full M group give coverage of approximately75-80% for individual subtypes, comparable to the coverage of the Mgroup as a whole (FIGS. 5 and 6). If imperfect 8/9 matches are allowed,both M group optimized and within-subtype optimized mosaics approach 90%coverage.

Since coverage is increased by adding progressively rarer 9-mers, andrare epitopes may be problematic (e.g., by inducing vaccine-specificimmunodominant responses), an investigation was made of the frequencydistribution of 9-mers in the vaccine constructs relative to the naturalsequences from which they were generated. Most additional epitopes in ak=6 cocktail compared to a k=4 cocktail are low-frequency (<0.1, FIG.7). Despite enhancing coverage, these epitopes are relatively rare, andthus responses they induce might draw away from vaccine responses tomore common, thus more useful, epitopes. Natural-sequence cocktailsactually have fewer occurrences of moderately low-frequency epitopesthan mosaics, which accrue some lower frequency 9-mers as coverage isoptimized. On the other hand, the mosaics exclude unique or very rare9-mers, while natural strains generally contain 9-mers present in noother sequence. For example, natural M group Gag sequences had a medianof 35 (range 0-148) unique 9-mers per sequence. Retention of HLA-anchormotifs was also explored, and anchor motif frequencies were found to becomparable between four mosaics and three natural strains. Naturalantigens did exhibit an increase in number of motifs per antigen,possibly due to inclusion of strain-specific motifs (FIG. 8).

The increase in ever-rarer epitopes with increasing k, coupled withconcerns about vaccination-point dilution and reagent development costs,resulted in the initial production of mosaic protein sets limited to 4sequences (k=4), spanning Gag and the central region of Nef, optimizedfor subtype B, subtype C, and the M group (these sequences are includedin FIG. 9; mosaic sets for Env and Pol are set forth in FIG. 10).Synthesis of various four-sequence Gag-Nef mosaics and initialantigenicity studies are underway. In the initial mosaic vaccine,targeted are just Gag and the center of the Nef protein, which areconserved enough to provide excellent global population coverage, andhave the desirable properties described above in terms of naturalresponses (Bansal et al, Aids 19:241-50 (2005)). Additionally, includingB subtype p24 variants in Elispot peptide mixtures to detect natural CTLresponses to infection significantly enhanced both the number and themagnitude of responses detected supporting the idea that includingvariants of even the most conserved proteins will be useful. Finally,cocktails of proteins in a polyvalent HIV-1 vaccine given to rhesusmacaques did not interfere with the development of robust responses toeach antigen (Seaman et al, J. Virol. 79:2956-63 (2005)), and antigencocktails did not produce antagonistic responses in murine models (Singhet al, J. Immunol. 169:6779-86 (2002)), indicating that antigenicmixtures are appropriate for T-cell vaccines.

Even with mosaics, variable proteins like Env have limited coverage of9-mers, although mosaics improve coverage relative to natural strains.For example three M group natural proteins, one each selected from theA, B, and C clades, and currently under study for vaccine design (Seamanet al, J. Virol. 79:2956-63 (2005)) perfectly match only 39% of the9-mers in M group proteins, and 65% have at least 8/9 matches. Incontrast, three M group Env mosaics match 47% of 9-mers perfectly, and70% have at least an 8/9 match. The code written to design polyvalentmosaic antigens is available, and could readily be applied to any inputset of variable proteins, optimized for any desired number of antigens.The code also allows selection of optimal combinations of k naturalstrains, enabling rational selection of natural antigens for polyvalentvaccines. Included in Table 1 are the best natural strains for Gag andNef population coverage of current database alignments.

TABLE 1 Natural sequence cocktails having the best available 9-mercoverage for different genes, subtype sets, and numbers of sequencesGag, B-subtype, 1 natural sequence B.US.86.AD87_AF004394 Gag, B-subtype,3 natural sequences B.US.86.AD87_AF004394 B.US.97.Ac_06_AY247251B.US.88.WR27_AF286365 Gag, B-subtype, 4 natural sequencesB.US.86.AD87_AF004394 B.US.97.Ac_06_AY247251 B.US._.R3_PDC1_AY206652B.US.88.WR27_AF286365 Gag, B-subtype, 6 natural sequencesB.CN._.CNHN24_AY180905 B.US.86.AD87_AF004394 B.US.97.Ac_06_AY247251B.US._.P2_AY206654 B.US._.R3_PDC1_AY206652 B.US.88.WR27_AF286365 Gag,C-subtype, 1 natural sequence C.IN._.70177_AF533131 Gag, C-subtype, 3natural sequences C.ZA.97.97ZA012 C.ZA.x.04ZASK161B1C.IN.^(—).70177_AF533131 Gag, C-subtype, 4 natural sequencesC.ZA.97.97ZA012 C.ZA.x.04ZASK142B1 C.ZA.x.04ZASK161B1C.IN._.70177_AF533131 Gag, C-subtype, 6 natural sequencesC.ZA.97.97ZA012 C.ZA.x.04ZASK142B1 C.ZA.x.04ZASK161B1C.BW.99.99BWMC168_AF443087 C.IN._.70177_AF533131 C.IN._.MYA1_AF533139Gag, M-group, 1 natural sequence C.IN._.70177_AF533131 Gag, M-group, 3natural sequences B.US.90.US2_AY173953 C.IN.-.70177_AF53313115_01B.TH.99.99TH_R2399_AF530576 Gag, M-group, 4 natural sequencesB.US.90.US2_AY173953 C.IN._.70177_AF533131 C.IN.93.93IN999_AF06715415_01B.TH.99.99TH_R2399_AF530576 Gag, M-group, 6 natural sequencesC.ZA.x.04ZASK138B1 B.US.90.US2_AY173953 B.US._.WT1_PDC1_AY206656C.IN._.70177_AF533131 C.IN.93.93IN999_AF06715415_01B.TH.99.99TH_R2399_AF530576 Nef (central region), B-subtype, 1natural sequence B.GB.94.028jh_94_1_NP_AF129346 Nef (central region),B-subtype, 3 natural sequences B.GB.94.028jh_94_1_NP_AF129346B.KR.96.96KCS4_AY121471 B.FR.83.HXB2_K03455 Nef (central region),B-subtype, 4 natural sequences B.GB.94.028jh_94_1_NP_AF129346B.KR.96.96KCS4_AY121471 B.US.90.E90NEF_U43108 B.FR.83.HXB2_K03455 Nef(central region), B-subtype, 6 natural sequencesB.GB.94.028jh_94_1_NP_AF129346 B.KR.02.02HYJ3_AY121454B.KR.96.96KCS4_AY121471 B.CN._.RL42_U71182 B.US.90.E90NEF_U43108B.FR.83.HXB2_K03455 Nef (central region), C-subtype, 1 natural sequenceC.ZA.04.04ZASK139B1 Nef (central region), C-subtype, 3 natural sequencesC.ZA.04.04ZASK180B1 C.ZA.04.04ZASK139B1 C.ZA._.ZASW15_AF397568 Nef(central region), C-subtype, 4 natural sequencesC.ZA.97.ZA97004_AF529682 C.ZA.04.04ZASK180B1 C.ZA.04.04ZASK139B1C.ZA._.ZASW15_AF397568 Nef (central region), C-subtype, 6 naturalsequences C.ZA.97.ZA97004_AF529682 C.ZA.00.1192M3M C.ZA.04.04ZASK180B1C.ZA.04.04ZASK139B1 C.04ZASK184B1 C.ZA._.ZASW15_AF397568 Nef (centralregion), M-group, 1 natural sequence B.GB.94.028jh_94_1_NP_AF129346 Nef(central region), M-group, 3 natural sequences02_AG.CM._.98CM1390_AY265107 C.ZA.03.03ZASK020B2B.GB.94.028jh_94_1_NP_AF129346 Nef (central region), M-group, 4 naturalsequences 02_AG.CM._.98CM1390_AY265107 01A1.MM.99.mCSW105_AB097872C.ZA.03.03ZASK020B2 B.GB.94.028jh_94_1_NP_AF129346 Nef (central region),M-group, 6 natural sequences 02_AG.CM._.98CM1390_AY26510701A1.MM.99.mCSW105_AB097872 C.ZA.03.03ZASK020B2 C.03ZASK111B1B.GB.94.028jh_94_1_NP_AF129346 B.KR.01.01CWS2_AF462757

Summarizing, the above-described study focuses on the design of T-cellvaccine components to counter HIV diversity at the moment of infection,and to block viral escape routes and thereby minimize diseaseprogression in infected individuals. The polyvalent mosaic proteinstrategy developed here for HIV-1 vaccine design could be applied to anyvariable protein, to other pathogens, and to other immunologicalproblems. For example, incorporating a minimal number of variantpeptides into T-cell response assays could markedly increase sensitivitywithout excessive cost: a set of k mosaic proteins provides the maximumcoverage possible for k antigens.

A centralized (consensus or ancestral) gene and protein strategy hasbeen proposed previously to address HIV diversity (Gaschen et al,Science 296:2354-2360 (2002)). Proof-of-concept for the use ofartificial genes as immunogens has been demonstrated by the induction ofboth T and B cell responses to wild-type HIV-1 strains by group Mconsensus immunogens (Gaschen et al, Science 296:2354-2360 (2002), Gaoet al, J. Virol. 79:1154-63 (2005), Doria-Rose et al, J. Virol.79:11214-24 (2005), Weaver et al, J. Virol., in press)). The mosaicprotein design improves on consensus or natural immunogen design byco-optimizing reagents for a polyclonal vaccine, excluding rare CD8+T-cell epitopes, and incorporating variants that, by virtue of theirfrequency at the population level, are likely to be involved in escapepathways.

The mosaic antigens maximize the number of epitope-length variants thatare present in a small, practical number of vaccine antigens. Thedecision was made to use multiple antigens that resemble nativeproteins, rather than linking sets of concatenated epitopes in apoly-epitope pseudo-protein (Hanke et al, Vaccine 16:426-35 (1998)),reasoning that in vivo processing of native-like vaccine antigens willmore closely resemble processing in natural infection, and will alsoallow expanded coverage of overlapping epitopes. T-cell mosaic antigenswould be best employed in the context of a strong polyvalent immuneresponse; improvements in other areas of vaccine design and acombination of the best strategies, incorporating mosaic antigens tocover diversity, may ultimately enable an effective cross-reactivevaccine-induced immune response against HIV-1.

All documents and other information sources cited above are herebyincorporated in their entirety by reference.

1.-12. (canceled)
 13. A nucleic acid comprising nucleotides encoding apolypeptide selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NO: 72 (Gag Msyn3.1), SEQ ID NO: 73 (Gag M syn3.2) and SEQ ID NO: 74 (Gag M syn3.3).14. The nucleic acid of claim 13 encoding the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO:72 (Gag M syn3.1).
 15. The nucleic acid of claim 13 encoding thepolypeptide of SEQ ID NO: 73 (Gag M syn3.2).
 16. The nucleic acid ofclaim 13 encoding the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO: 74 (Gag M syn3.3).
 17. Avector comprising a nucleic acid of claim 13, wherein the nucleic acidis operably linked to a promoter.
 18. The vector of claim 17, whereinthe vector is a viral vector.
 19. The vector of claim 18, wherein theviral vector is an adenoviral vector, an adeno-associated virus vector,a pox virus vector, an enteric virus vector, a Venezuelean EquineEncephalitis Virus vector, a Semliki Forest Virus vector, or a TobaccoMosaic Virus vector.
 20. A composition comprising at least one of thenucleic acids of claim 13 and a carrier.
 21. A composition comprisingthe vector of claim 17 and a carrier.
 22. The composition of claim 20,wherein the composition further comprises an adjuvant.
 23. Thecomposition of claim 21, wherein the composition further comprises anadjuvant.
 24. A trivalent composition comprising nucleic acidscomprising nucleotides encoding a polypeptide of SEQ ID NO: 72 (Gag Msyn3.1), SEQ ID NO: 73 (Gag M syn3.2), and SEQ ID NO: 74 (Gag M syn3.3).25. The trivalent composition of claim 24, wherein the compositioncomprises nucleic acids encoding the polypeptide of SEQ ID NO: 72 (Gag Msyn3.1), SEQ ID NO: 73 (Gag M syn3.2) and SEQ ID NO: 74 (Gag M syn3.3).26. The trivalent composition of claim 24 or 25, wherein each nucleicacid is operably linked to a promoter in a vector.
 27. The trivalentcomposition of claim 26, wherein the vector is a viral vector.
 28. Thetrivalent composition of claim 27, wherein the viral vectors is anadenoviral vector, an adeno-associated virus vector, a pox virus vector,an enteric virus vector, a Venezuelean Equine Encephalitis Virus vector,a Semliki Forest Virus vector, or a Tobacco Mosaic Virus vector.
 29. Thetrivalent composition of claim 24 or 25 further comprising an adjuvant.30. A method of inducing an immune response against HIV— 1 in a hostcomprising administering to the host the composition of claim 24 or 25in an amount sufficient to induce the response.